The Beatles Song That Friends Thought Was a Joke Because of How 'Out of Left Field' It Sounded
Paul McCartney was proud of writing 1 Beatles song. He could hardly believe it when a friend disliked the song for its sound.
Throughout their time as a group, The Beatles received praise for the way they pushed musical boundaries with their songs and albums. This has earned them a permanent place in the musical canon. As they were releasing songs, though, it occasionally brought them ridicule. While listening to a new Beatles song, a friend responded with disbelief. He thought it sounded like a joke.
In 1965, The Beatles released Rubber Soul. The album marked a shift for the band into more introspective, mature songs. When the band played one of the album’s songs, “Michelle,” for a friend, though, he responded with confusion.
“We’d just put out ‘Michelle,’ and I remember one night at the Ad Lib club David Bailey hearing it and saying, ‘You’ve got to be joking — it is tongue in cheek, isn’t it?'” Paul McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “My reaction was: ‘Piss off! That’s a real tune,’ and was quite surprised that he’d think that.”
Over time, though, McCartney grew to understand Bailey’s reaction. The song was a departure from The Beatles’ earlier work and the music of the first half of the decade.
“Looking at the Sixties now, I can see why he did, because everything was very ‘Needles And Pins’, ‘Please Please Me’, and suddenly — ‘Michelle,'” McCartney said. “It came a bit out of left field, but those are often my favorites. I mean, one of Cliff Richard’s best ones was ‘Living Doll.’ When he came out with that it was quite a shock, with its acoustics; but it was a well-formed little song.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
